Apparently, luminaries like Ross Perot, James Cameron, Google Founder Larry Paige,Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and “visionary” Peter H. Diamandis are going to be announcing a new company on April 24th. Here’s the important part of the release:

“The company will overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources’.”

It sounds a lot like they’re talking about asteroid mining. If so, this company stands to be far and away the most ambitious undertaking in recent memory.

Diamandis has been interested in asteroid mining for a long time, and it sounds like this might be his time to put a plan into action. There are staggering amounts of gold in them thar asteroids, even if they are sort of far away.

"The earth is a crumb in a supermarket of resources," Diamandis told Forbes earlier this year. "Now we finally have the technology to extract resources outside earth for the benefit of humanity without having to rape and pillage our planet."

Truly harvesting resources without raping and pillaging the planet will be a challenge – flights into space aren’t exactly eco-friendly. Whatever these people unveil on April 24th may or may not make sense, but it will be a hell of a ride regardless.